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The OverAchiever: Guide to Lunar Festival 2013 achievements

Allison Robert
Updated ·20 min read
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The OverAchiever Guide to Lunar Festival 2013 achievements

Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the Fed-Ex quest from hell.

This year, the Lunar Festival runs from Sunday, Jan. 27 to Saturday, Feb. 9. (As always, check your game calendar for specific start and stop times for your server.) On a very important note, this year cuts the length of the holiday from three to two weeks, so if you're a new player or you're starting a fresh character, you won't have as much time as you usually do to get everything done. I think Blizzard limited it so as not to clash with Love Is In the Air, which begins Sunday, Feb. 10.

If you're new to the Lunar Festival, the holiday mostly revolves around involve talking to a number of elders in order to honor them, receiving Coins of Ancestry in return, and then using the coins to purchase holiday items, including clothing and pets. The To Honor One's Elders meta-achievement is also a requirement for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, so if you're still after a Violet Proto-Drake, make sure you get this done.

The Lunar Festival is definitely not one of Azeroth's more difficult holidays, but it's time-consuming if you need all the NPCs. However, it's also a good time to do other travel-intensive achievements like World Explorer.



Elders of the Eastern Kingdoms


Elders of the Eastern Kingdoms, as with most of the elder-related achievements, is easy to do as long as you don't mind traveling. All you have to do to honor the elders is find 'em, right-click on 'em, and have a nice chat. They're always sitting in a big beam of light, so they tend to stand out. You'll need to speak with all of the following elders in the Eastern Kingdoms in order to complete this achievement, and I've listed them in rough order from the northern part of the continent to the southern.


If you don't have a coordinate addon, elders are nonetheless pretty simple to find: Look for the telltale pool of light! Elders are rarely located all that far from flight paths.

Quick note concerning Elders of Cataclysm, a separate achievement You may or may not want to do this at the same time you're doing the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor achievements due to the direct ports to each Cataclysm zone available from Stormwind/Orgrimmar. If you're starting on a fresh character, it's probably easiest to just do them all at once. I've listed the relevant elders here for convenience, but bear in mind that you'll still need to port to Vashj'ir and Deepholm.

Elders of Kalimdor

Once you're all set with the Eastern Kingdoms, hop a boat or zeppelin to the west in order to do Elders of Kalimdor. Again, I've listed them in order from the northern end of the continent to the southern.


Elders of the Alliance

You'll also need to talk to a series of elders located in capital cities for Elders of the Alliance and its Horde version, which means the oft unpleasant process of having to enter enemy cities. This is somewhat easier these days now that you can fly straight into most enemy cities, but the odds of being knocked off your mount by airborne guards or hostile players are still pretty good. The three Alliance elders are easy enough to reach if you're Alliance, but Horde will have some work to do here. Keeping this in mind, the instructions below are written with an eye toward locating elders if you're a member of the opposite faction, and I've retained instructions on how to find the elders on foot if your character isn't able to fly yet.

  • Bladeswift the Elder 33,14 in the Cenarion Enclave in Darnassus. This is located in the northern part of the city and just south of the Howling Oak district. Sorry, Horde -- without a flying mount, this elder is a real beast to reach. You'll have to run in off the boat to Rut'theran Village, get past the guards, hang a left, and make a beeline for the Cenarion Enclave. This will keep you away from the most crowded area of Darnassus (insofar as any portion of Darnassus could be termed crowded). As long as you're on Teldrassil, keep heading east afterwards to talk to Elder Bladeleaf in Dolanaar. If you have a flying mount, simply fly up the side of Teldrassil after taking the ferry over from Darkshore.

  • Bronzebeard the Elder 29,17 in the Mystic Ward of Ironforge. If you're Horde, hang a left after entering the city's front gates and drop down into the trench that runs the the length of The Commons -- this should get most of the guards off your tail. Keep going, and the first ramp up from the trench should put you within sight of Elder Bronzebeard. At this point, you can hearth (if possible), port to Moonglade using a scroll from a Festival Harbinger, or get to the Deeprun Tram so you can knock off the Stormwind elder without having to enter the city from the front gates or harbor.

  • Hammershout the Elder This guy is much easier to reach now than he was in days past and can be located right outside the Stormwind gates.

Elders of the Horde

Nowadays, it's a little more troublesome for Alliance to reach the Horde elders for Elders of the Horde than vice versa, and the odds of your attracting attention while doing at least the Orgrimmar leg is reasonably high. As with their Alliance counterparts, the Horde elders are simple to reach if you're Horde, so I'm writing this with an eye toward the difficulty of reaching them as an Alliance player.

  • Darkhorn the Elder 52,59 close to the Undercity/Stranglethorn zeppelin tower. This one has always been the worst of the Horde elders to reach, and that hasn't changed in Cataclysm. Honestly, if you're on foot, this is an ugly, ugly job. As always, you're probably best off zoning into Orgrimmar from the western gate if you're confined to a ground mount and riding in through the troll district. Your aim is to reach one of the elevators to the zeppelin/flight master plateau, which you can do by taking a left out of the troll district and then a right through the tauren district, or by taking a right out of the troll district and then a left down the ramp to an elevator. Once on the plateau, head for the eastern zeppelin tower. Try as I might, I cannot think of an easy or fast way to do this if you don't have a flying mount -- and even if you do, there are constant flying guard patrols right around the central portion of Orgrimmar anyway. I've heard other people suggest just taking the zeppelin from Undercity, which is pretty convenient as it does dump you right off where Elder Darkhorn is, but you will be swarmed by guards. On the bright side, once you've talked to Darkhorn, the worst part of your Elder meta is over.

  • Wheathoof the Elder 72,23 on Elder Rise in Thunder Bluff. This is an elder named for Ezra Chatterton, a young player who died in 2008 and was the first to receive a phoenix mount. Ezra Wheathoof is one of Blizzard's in-game nods to him (he's actually a copy of Ezra's character, Ephoenix), and you'll note he's the only elder to have a pet with him (not surprisingly, a phoenix). Because Thunder Bluff is usually deserted, you should encounter minimal player resistance, but you can still cut down on encounters with Horde players by using the northern elevator if you can't fly. Hang a quick left into the bridge building after you come up (mouse over the beam over the entrance to see where it goes to confirm you've got the bridge to Elder Rise), and head over; you'll see the elder to the left of the big druids' tent on Elder Rise. If you're getting harassed by Horde players or guards, you can jump off the Rise afterwards, although I recommend having a slow fall effect of some kind prepared so that you survive the jump. If you're flying, getting to Wheathoof will be absurdly simple -- just fly over to the Elder Rise and talk to him without ever getting off your mount.

  • Darkcore the Elder 66,38 in the Ruins of Lordaeron above Undercity. This guy's easy to find, although with increased Horde traffic on the zeppelins during the Lunar Festival, the odds of running into high-level players getting on and off the elevators are decent. Ride or fly into the Ruins of Lordaeron above the city and keep going straight; you'll find the elder in the circular throne room along with the rest of the Lunar Festival NPCs.


Elders of Northrend


A host of Northrend elders joined the holiday when Wrath of the Lich King launched, so you'll need to make the trek to the snowy north for Elders of Northrend. I've listed them all in rough counterclockwise order going around the continent (from Borean Tundra to Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks, Wintergrasp, to Sholazar Basin). There are no elders in Icecrown or Howling Fjord. If your class is capable of soloing normal dungeons (or at least surviving them long enough to reach an elder inside, which should easily be doable at level 85), by all means hit the relevant Northrend dungeons for elders while you make your way around the continent.

Elders of Cataclysm

Elders of Cataclysm has now been added to the meta-achievement, and if you didn't already have the meta as of the 2011 holiday, this will now be a requirement.

Elders of the Dungeons

Not only are elders in the open world, but they're in the instanced world as well for Elders of the Dungeons. I've already listed these guys with our Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Northrend guides since you won't be able to queue for any of them if you're level-capped.

  • Zul'Farrak Wildmane the Elder By the pool where you summon Gahz'rilla.

  • Maraudon Splitrock the Elder Take the port to second half of the instance, then head for the Princess. Drop down into the lake where Rotgrip is located, and swim up to the ramp. Because this probably makes no sense, a Wowhead user created a map.

  • Sunken Temple Starsong the Elder Immediately upon entering the instance.

  • Blackrock Depths Morndeep the Elder Located smack in the center of the Ring of Law.

  • Stratholme Farwhisper the Elder If you have the key to the service entrance, zone in there, hang a left through the Elder Square Gate, and then follow the road to the right. If you don't have the key, zone in, hang a left, continue to your right through the Market Square Gate, and take a right once you're through the Gate (you'll have to kill a bunch of rats while you're in the Market Square Gate).

  • Lower Blackrock Spire Stonefort the Elder Finding this guy is a massive pain in the ass, but Wowhead user Pallybeb has a good set of instructions even if you're completely new to the instance.

  • Utgarde Keep Jarten the Elder In the first room with a staircase (between first and second bosses), in the alcove to the left.

  • Nexus Igasho the Elder In Ormorok's room.

  • Azjol-Nerub Nurgen the Elder In the pond area after the drop following Hadronox.

  • Drak'tharon Keep Kilias the Elder In King Dred's enclosure.

  • Gun'drak Ohanzee the Elder In the room with the Drakkari Colossus (second boss).

  • Halls of Stone Yurauk the Elder Just before Krystallus.

  • Utgarde Pinnacle Chogan'gada the Elder Underneath the staircase that you go down after killing Skadi the Ruthless.

Elders of Pandaria (maybe)

We're pretty sure that a host of elders will also be added to Pandaria (if not this year, then next), so stay tuned. After the holiday goes lives, I'll update this section with a full list of their names and locations should they appear.

50 Coins of Ancestry

Each elder to whom you speak will give you a Coin of Ancestry, so getting this achievement will happen as a matter of course.

Lunar Festival Finery

The coins that the elders will give you can be used to purchase clothing and items from holiday vendors for Lunar Festival Finery. For this achievement, you'll have to talk to one vendor in particular -- Valadar Starsong, located in Moonglade on the wooden platform overlooking Lake Elune'ara (on the eastern side of Nighthaven). For any of the clothing items, you'll have to fork over five coins, but you only need to buy one for the achievement. It's among WoW's prettiest holiday-related clothing, and lots of players wind up keeping them.

The Rocket's Red Glare

First things first -- you'll need 10 Red Rocket Clusters. These can be purchased from any Lunar Festival Vendor for one silver each (so 10 silver total), or -- if you're an engineer or know one -- made by engineers who buy the Schematic: Red Rocket Cluster from Fariel Starsong (next to Valadar Starsong in Moonglade at the coordinates given above). Generally, it's cheaper and faster to buy the rockets from a vendor, though.

All set? You'll have to find a cluster launcher in order to shoot these off. These can be found in the festival areas of any major city. Mosey on over, hotkey the Red Rocket Clusters you've bought, and spam, spam, spam. Be forewarned that the clusters do trigger the global cooldown, and latency also has an effect. If you're used to playing with ugly latency, don't do this at server high time, or find one of your faction's more deserted cities.

Frenzied Firecracker

Frenzied Firecracker is an easier version of The Rocket's Red Glare. Festival Firecrackers can be purchased from any Lunar Festival vendor for three silver each (so 30 silver total). Got them? Hotkey them the same way you did for the Red Rocket Clusters, and spam the hotkey while alternating mouse-clicks to target them (they can't be fired without being targeted). As with The Rocket's Red Glare, try not to do this during a busy period on your server if you tend to suffer from bad latency.

Elune's Blessing

Omen is a boss who appears in Moonglade only during the Lunar Festival and pretty much just for Elune's Blessing. Valadar Starsong -- yep, the same NPC who will sell you Lunar Festival duds -- will give you a quest called Elune's Blessing. Once you've got it, you'll need to trek to the southeastern portion of Moonglade around the Stormrage Barrow Dens and -- if Omen's not already dead or in combat with other players -- summon him by tossing cluster rockets into the cluster launchers that line the shore of the lake.

If you've never done Omen before, he's essentially a tank-and-spank with a cleave (melee beware) and some occasional raid damage by way of an AoE Starfall ability. He doesn't hit hard, but tanks will need to be vigilant to keep moving him out of Starfall unless you want your healer/s to spend a lot of time healing otherwise avoidable damage. Omen doesn't have an enrage timer and can technically be duoed by a tank-and-healer pair or even soloed by a sufficiently well-geared and enterprising tank class. His health also doesn't reset if you fail to kill him. Simply resurrect at the nearby graveyard and head back for another try.

Directly after he dies, a large moonbeam will appear on the corpse, and anyone who steps within it will receive Elune's Blessing and complete the quest. Even if your toon's a lowbie, you can still easily get the quest done as long as someone else has recently killed Omen (lowbie characters can also buy Elune's Candles from Starsong and toss them at Omen for about 1K damage a pop). If you're on the quest and come upon someone else trying to kill him, it's considered polite to help DPS him down.

Omen raids tend to be quite popular early in the holiday and then taper off as time goes by. If you're mostly a solo player or have to depend on someone else's good graces to get a kill, I'd advise making this achievement a priority.

Enjoy working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! Count on us for advice on patch 4.3 achievements, our guide to Mountain O' Mounts, and a good, hard look at what's wrong with archaeology and how Blizzard could fix it.